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Damn, it happened again after working all day yesterday. Crossing my fingers that it will come back after some driving, I'm geting tired of pushing my car back and then hopping in before I rolls away from me.

Actually i have the same issue, 328i reverse only works sometimes, and if before i park the reverse works then the reverse will work when i get back in the car.
So every time i park i make sure the reverse works, if it doesn't i look for a different spot...

this just happen to my 328i car last week i wonder if i hav ethe ZM or GM thingy transmission BMW is such a harsh car to fix OMG... i think i might just sell my 1999 bmw 328i with 120,000 miles for 4300 grand you guys think that is a fair amount???

Actually i have the same issue, 328i reverse only works sometimes, and if before i park the reverse works then the reverse will work when i get back in the car.
So every time i park i make sure the reverse works, if it doesn't i look for a different spot...

You'll be glad to know it's an easy fix!

Quote:

Originally Posted by thisguy408

this just happen to my 328i car last week i wonder if i hav ethe ZM or GM thingy transmission BMW is such a harsh car to fix OMG... i think i might just sell my 1999 bmw 328i with 120,000 miles for 4300 grand you guys think that is a fair amount???

Actually i have the same issue, 328i reverse only works sometimes, and if before i park the reverse works then the reverse will work when i get back in the car.
So every time i park i make sure the reverse works, if it doesn't i look for a different spot...

Got the solenoid replaced as well as fluid and filter. Was working fine for 2 days then it stopped working after all day of driving. Drove 10 min and everything was fine again. No hiccups since. Hope it stays that way

Neil or anyone else that cares to chime in. Everything in this thread is specific to no reverse. Could one of the solenoids be the cause of a slow to engage drive? Same symtoms as the no reverse with the GM trannies, except it takes a few seconds for drive to engage also on a GM tranny. I know there is a TSB for this and BMW was replacing the trannies at first under the TSB, but later changed the TSB to update the software. Also, (bare in mind I know very little about the internals of trannies) if it's just a clogged screen in the solenoid, why can't you just clean the screen instead of replacing the solenoid?

Neil or anyone else that cares to chime in. Everything in this thread is specific to no reverse. Could one of the solenoids be the cause of a slow to engage drive? Same symtoms as the no reverse with the GM trannies, except it takes a few seconds for drive to engage also on a GM tranny. I know there is a TSB for this and BMW was replacing the trannies at first under the TSB, but later changed the TSB to update the software. Also, (bare in mind I know very little about the internals of trannies) if it's just a clogged screen in the solenoid, why can't you just clean the screen instead of replacing the solenoid?

+1 regarding cleaning the solenoid. Also I have Q, You said that it's clogged, What is making this solenoid clogged?. is it somthing in the fluid?! and could we clean the other solinoids as a maintenance every time we change the fluid?

I have anther problem in trans. ( harsh shift from 1-2 during warm up ) I dont know what causing this prob.
But you Mr. Neil open the ideas to me to think about my problem.
Thanks for you.

This happened to me so I replaced the solenoid Saturday. Everything worked fine the rest of the weekend until today. It failed to go into reverse twice today so far. Drive it a bit and everything seems normal again. Here is my thinking.... I believe the valve itself is the problem. I think the solenoid can go bad but there is also the possibility that debris is causing the valve to stick. Anyone else feel free to chime in with any other ideas.

This happened to me so I replaced the solenoid Saturday. Everything worked fine the rest of the weekend until today. It failed to go into reverse twice today so far. Drive it a bit and everything seems normal again. Here is my thinking.... I believe the valve itself is the problem. I think the solenoid can go bad but there is also the possibility that debris is causing the valve to stick. Anyone else feel free to chime in with any other ideas.

This happened to me so I replaced the solenoid Saturday. Everything worked fine the rest of the weekend until today. It failed to go into reverse twice today so far. Drive it a bit and everything seems normal again. Here is my thinking.... I believe the valve itself is the problem. I think the solenoid can go bad but there is also the possibility that debris is causing the valve to stick. Anyone else feel free to chime in with any other ideas.

Same situation as you. Replaced solenoid, worked fine for a few days and then started acting up once in a while. Haven't found a solution yet, but if you a post wouldbe much appreciated. I'll do the same.

If the solenoid didn't fix it, that could be troublesome. Cleaning out the valve body isn't easy, if you decide to take it apart, best of luck getting it back together properly. I honestly don't have advice for doing valve body work, that's over my head. For what it's worth, you could try cleaning it without taking it apart but I don't know how well that would work. We could move to simpler things like taking a look at the electronics behind the gear engagement. Take a look at your internal transmission wiring harness, I know when I took mine out, it was so brittle who knows if it was going to go bad at some point. Have you guys tried fluid changes, at the very least a filter change? Maybe the whole problem is behind there being too much gunk in the valve body and when you put a new solenoid in there, it just gets gunked again? I kinda confused here because I've never heard of this failing for so many people, there must be another underlying problem causing your no reverse

UPDATE: Car still shifting fine. Have been driving it the past couple days to work and everywhere else and reverse still works. If it comes down to it and I do pull the valve body, I will definitely take pictures. I have a couple very knowledgeable people at my disposal when it comes to rebuilding them.